Ken Blackwell, the former Republican nominee for governor, has an early Republican primary
lead in the 2012 U.S. Senate race and runs best against Sen. Sherrod Brown, trailing the
Democratic incumbent 44 - 35 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Ohio voters approve 49 - 45 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing,
compared to a 47 - 48 percent approval in a March 24 survey by the independent Quinnipiac
(KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. Independent voters shift from a negative 42 - 50 percent in
March to a positive 49 - 44 percent today. Republican and Democratic approval is little changed.

President Obama's lead over an unnamed Republican in a November, 2012 trial run is
down from 41 - 34 percent in March to 41 - 39 percent now, a virtual tie. Voters split 47 - 47
percent on whether he deserves a second term in office, compared to 45 - 46 percent in March.

"The six-point bounce President Barack Obama got in Quinnipiac University's May 5
national poll goes flat when Ohio voters judge his job performance," said Peter A. Brown,
assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "His approval rating has barely
moved, but symbolically it's on the positive side again. His matchup against an unnamed
Republican, however, is down. In Ohio at least, the question of whether there is a 'bin Laden
bounce' apparently has been answered. And the White House can't be happy with the answer."

Among Republican voters, Blackwell gets 33 percent in the U.S. Senate primary, with
Mandel at 17 percent and Coughlin at 5 percent. Another 43 percent are undecided.

Men split with 38 percent for Brown and 36 percent for Coughlin, but women go with
the Democrat 50 - 22 percent.

"Sen. Sherrod Brown obviously begins the campaign with a strong lead against any
Republican," said Brown. "But he is not necessarily home free. He is unable to get 50 percent
against any of the three potential challengers, which is the dividing line for incumbents who are
overwhelmingly favored for re-election.

"In the Republican primary, Blackwell's lead is not much of one at all, given how much
better he is known than the other GOP aspirants and the fact that almost half of GOP voters are
undecided at this point," said Brown.

Ohio voters approve 38 - 21 percent of the job Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is
doing. Another 41 percent are undecided on the first-termer.

From May 10 - 16, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,379 registered voters with a margin
of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public
opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and the
nation as a public service and for research.
For more data or RSS feed- http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, call (203) 582-5201, or
follow us on Twitter.

1. (If registered Republican) If the 2012 Republican primary for United States
Senator were being held today, and the candidates were Ken Blackwell,
Josh Mandel, and Kevin Coughlin for whom would you vote?

9. Looking ahead to the 2012 election for President...
If the 2012 election for President were being held today, do you think you would
vote for Barack Obama the Democratic candidate, or for the Republican candidate?

TREND: Looking ahead to the 2012 election for President...
If the 2012 election for President were being held today, do you think you would
vote for Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, or the Republican candidate?